Re: Linking to non-free websites from gnome.org

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > > I raised this issue as soon as I became aware of the campaign, which
  > > was when I saw it mentioned here.  I would have raised the issue
  > > earlier if I had known earlier.

  > This is simply untrue. I asked you in person during your lecture with
  > about 20 witnesses at the GNOME hackfest in Boston what I should do.

Perhaps we are miscommunicating.  By "this campaign" I mean the
campaign on Indiegogo -- which didn't exist at that time.

  > I told you I was going to be raising money to work on a new development
  > environment for GNOME and that I was concerned about our options for
  > crowd funding.
  > You were unable to provide me any actionable suggestions for how to go
  > forward.

That's because the several crowdfunding sites I had investigated all
had the same unethical practice of requiring donors to run nonfree
software.  There was not one that we could use without contradicting
the principles of the free software movement.  This is a serious
problem and I've been looking for a solution for more than a year.

Didn't I tell you this at the time?

Since then, I have come across one site, crowdsupply.com, which offers
a way to send money bypassing the nonfree JS code.  That makes it
better than the others.  I urge people to choose crowdsupply.com for
future campaigns.

  > > Since it is too late to do the campaign differently, I think we should
  > > suggest to people that they bypass the campaign and send money
  > > directly to a person or organization associated with Builder.

  > Richard, I'd be thrilled to receive money from you.

The issue at hand is what to say to the public.

We should not suggest that people run nonfree software.  Some who see
the banner might run nonfree software.  Worse, _everyone_ who sees it
would get the message that running nonfree software is ok as long as
it's "for a good reason".

See http://gnu.org/philosophy/is-ever-good-use-nonfree-program.html
for why that idea is perilous.  Most people think that whatever they
are doing is a "good reason" for whatever means.


A good solution has already been proposed.  You can state a way
people can send you money, without running nonfree software,
and the banner can point to that.  It's not a lot of work,
and it enables us to promote funding for Builder coherently with
our principles.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call.